today's news on the week's top stories here on israel suggests it was behind this week's. attempt to mediate a meeting with the syrian opposition. president claims that french troops will stay in mali as long as necessary. accusations of war crimes

by force. there's no sign of compromise looming between the government of. egypt the protests demanding the resignation of the president. yet again. the u.s. political elite endorses john kerry as the new secretary of state with chuck hagel expected to clinch the post of defense secretary but neither appointments expected to change much in america's global policy. the stories that made headlines this week and today this is the weekly on a with me will receive a welcome to the program. the israeli defense minister has today hinted for the first time that his country was behind this week's attack on syria talking at

a munich security conference suggested. nations warplanes targeted a syrian arms convoy headed for lebanon let's get more now from. joining us live from tel aviv here and up paula good to see today and thanks for coming on so quickly we've heard the comments from the head barak and now we're just hearing straight from syrian t.v. that president bashar al assad is saying that israel is trying to destabilize his country what do you know. well as you say this is the first public comment from an israeli official over the israeli strike into syrian territory last week it does come from the israeli defense minister. and he has said that it is proof that when israel says something it means that he did stop short of actually a third being israel's involvement now u.s. officials have said that the strike targeted an arms convoy that was carrying anti aircraft weapons from syria to lebanon according to the israeli defense minister

ehud barak he said that we do not think and i'm quoting that syria should be allowed to bring advanced weapons systems into lebanon and it is important to make the point that his comments does not constitute acknowledgment of israel's involvement in the strike but it certainly does suggest the possibility that it took place and it was responsible for it but also said that the syrian president bashar assad's fall is imminent and that it would serve as a major blow to his villa and iran now as you say syrian state television is reporting that assad has said that israel plans to destabilize his country he also made the point that syria is able to confident any kind of aggression support of the israeli defense minister saying certainly that is nations warplanes were behind the attack although there was a syrian. called for headed for lebanon or whether it was a syrian research center that's yet to be confirmed but if indeed israel's attack is taken at face value do you think there are any dangers now of repercussions.

well certainly there are dangers of repercussions which is why we need to look at this israeli strategy and it's a strategy that israel has employed in the past and that is namely a strategy of silence it is strategic it doesn't give any kind of confirmation or any kind of denial what israel has done in the past does not want an attack then leave and it really its response has been a no comment which really leaves the question in observations minds it is a culture lated moves because the silence allows is why. enemies to save face and thus reduce the risk of a prize all and it's collision against the jewish state these signs also smooths israel's discreet cooperation with its muslim neighbors and here i'm talking for example about turkey and jordan who if israel had to come out forefront and publicly acknowledge that they've carried out such a strike for example against syria these countries might feel bound to distance themselves and perhaps work against israel israeli leaders also benefit from not publicly acknowledging involvement in the trumpeting over successes that might give

the public or indeed they waste in allies and exaggerated faith in their capabilities and again with something also to be repeated warmongering we hear from tel aviv over a possible attack over to iran now it is an open secret that israel cannot launch any kind of attack without u.s. involvement so the analysis often is that by making such wall mongering statements israel is really just trying to send off an attack that it actually want to be able to carry out of course the international fallout from any kind of israeli strike in syria any rand would create immense arguments in the international community we've heard for example from moscow who says that if indeed israel did carry out the strike it was an attack on a sovereign state and as such it breached international law so israel of course would not want to come out publicly and acknowledge that it carried out such a strike because it would not want to have the kind of diplomatic complications and diplomatic fallout that would follow from such an admission or certainly paula. as

we try and get absolute confirmation that this was an israeli strike inside syrian territory according to syrian t.v. right now president bashar al assad has said that syria is capable of confronting any aggression which is over see how this all plays out or how to use up all of their thinking here. over the meantime our hopes of ending the ongoing conflict in syria have actually received a slight boost just on the sidelines of a key security conference in munich that's where russia's foreign minister. held its first direct talks with the leader of syria's main opposition that of the national coalition and moscow's called on the rebel group to be realistic and unite in order to bring peace negotiations with president assad laugh it off i once again reiterated that any use of force is unacceptable and that the war in syria could have already ended if indeed the geneva agreement on a unity government had been hinted at the editor of a politics first magazine marcus papadopoulos things diplomacy still has a long way to go before any real success will be achieved on the meeting between

the leader of the so the planes syrian national coalition and the foreign ministers of russia and the wrongs an acknowledgement by the leader of the syrian national coalition that the syrian government it's not going to be defeated on the military battlefield and it is acknowledgement that thousands of syrian civilians have died unnecessarily and because outside players in the region turkey saudi arabia qatar and the in holland weapons and cash to the militants in syria i think certainly lateral the russian foreign minister said last year how surprised he was by the e.d.t. over the phone by a syrian opposition equally. to go from power to resign to step down except that's not the way diplomacy works that's not the way peace process could suggest hillary clinton about

a year ago accused russian government of having blood on its hands flow unfortunately it's more the country saudi arabia it's on saudi arabia we have the blood of thousands upon thousands of syrian civilians in their hands because of their own geo strategic ambitions to see that removal of presence is sad and the syrian government's. this is artsy france led a military campaign in mali has been marred by alleged human rights abuses and activists reporting civilian deaths torture and ethnic reprisals by the local army he has an exclusive report now from one of the war ravaged areas. these grammys in this mop the area we've discovered allegations of war crimes information about them is under the control of mali's military government. i think it's getting more and more the she called to talk to people a lot of. human rights activists who are trying to identify witnesses are saying that people climbing up and feeling the heat they are scared to speak

a lot of people here. are very shifu the malian army seems to be doing whatever it can to prevent people from speaking to openly when i was there because this government took advantage of the media's interest in all and for the first time visited the city's worst affected by hostilities today in the town of qana we were surprised by the arrival of mamadou cd bed the minister for humanitarian action and solidarity this was an attempt to bring the bomb a call government closer to the people who regard the capital as remote from them with this visit in this event staged by politicians coincided with the publication of reports by international organizations such as amnesty international and human rights watch alleging atrocities crimes and violence on both sides for instance in qana several civilians were reportedly killed in french air force shelling we tried to interview the injured however were unable to obtain evidence in

a community that has until now been strictly regulated by the military authorities and. the ministry says an investigation is underway has got so far no evidence has been provided so let the judicial system do its job to list all of these government its people and military. well aware of current events and we know that we cannot play this game. of the government has been attempting to assert political power despite very poor infrastructure today we spoke to an army private on his way back from he told us he hadn't been paid or even properly for fifteen days and if this war continues there will be a need for justice after a comprehensive internal investigation rather than heartfelt celebrations and demonstrations of power. now i during his visit to mali president francois hollande claimed that french troops will remain in the west african state in till

the complete reinstatement of its sovereignty it comes only days after the u.k. announced it's sending up to three hundred fifty non-combat military personnel into the area for assistance jeremy corbin a british labor m.p. he says that he believes his country could be in for a rather lengthy operation. david cameron is getting sucked into something that i don't think he's seriously thought through two weeks ago we started offering transport planes to france we then sent force protection to back up the transport planes we send trainers and we have additional force protection to protect them we then have surveillance aircraft going overhead and there are reports of u.k. special forces i think we've been dragged into this the danger is the more you send any troops in trainers over anything else just suppose something awful happens like one of the training groups is killed by what the term to be insurgent forces what

then happens you then go after those groups you then have a greater british military involvement we may well be in for a quite a long high tech surveillance. warfare being conducted by the french and possibly with britain and others. against people that know the terrain very well will be hidden by the local population this could be a very long and very nasty conflict. or that's a shift is not about egypt where deepening fissures in egypt society continue to grow this week as an ongoing crackdown on anti-government protests fail to silence calls for president morsi to quit some of the latest violence so one person shot dead and many others injured and security forces are trying to disperse angry crowds which had attacked that of the presidential palace this only worse than the political and social stalemate the opposition yet again refused to join in national dialogue and vowed to step up their protests the president warned of decisive

measures in dealing with the unrest military currently has increased powers due to a month long state of emergency law. opposition activists to uk make that the claims the government's actions are heavily influenced by the on. the surface interpretation of what's happening definitely that there are groups who are will. to sabotage anything and try to embarrass the government specifically morsi and the military. on the surface however there are deeper interpretations of what's going on some of the interpretation goes that the military council or the military is behind all of this so that they can have. title the grip over this race canal and intensify their presence militarily over there probably we don't want to see an economic development of this specific strategic area because it would mean handover to civilian oversight of the canal rather than military oversight of the canal according to the new constitution something called the national defense

council this council in most countries and previously had an advisory stature right now it has more of an executive stature and it has more military members on this board surveillance which outnumbers the civilians including the commander in chief the president which means they can force the president to take certain decisions which we have just seen in the past couple of days when they had the commander in chief say that he will declare martial law or emergency emergency law in those specific areas. still to come here on our final say before going behind bars. we don't even realize how much of a police state the united states has become to torture the former cia officer turned whistle blower of america's torture program and he's also two and a half years in prison. and green protesters clashed with police outside the labor

minister in central african republic growing ever more weary of the government's ongoing spending cuts. he. says. we speak your language of the law and out of. the music programs in documentaries and spanish more matters to you breaking news a little turn a tip angles keep these stories. for you here.

in troy altie spanish find out more visit. all tito's calm. the fuck. up for most of this is artsy on rory sushi for the first. man convicted for blowing the whistle on america's prison torture program has now begun a two and a half year prison sentence cia veteran and joint kiriakou was convicted of exposing washington's secret interrogation tactics and one of his final interviews before being locked away he told r.t. exactly what he thinks he's being punished for first of all my case was not about

leaking my case was about torture when i blew the whistle on torture in december of two thousand and seven the justice to department here in the united states began investigating me and never stopped investigating me until they were able to patch together. charge and force me into taking a plea agreement and i'll add another thing to when i took the plea in october of last year the judge said that she thought the plea was was fair and appropriate but once the courtroom was packed full of reporters last friday she decided that it was not long enough and if she had had the ability to she would have given me ten years in this post nine eleven atmosphere that we find ourselves in we have been losing our civil liberties incrementally over the last decade to the point where we don't even realize how much of a police state the united states has become you know ten years ago the thought of

the national security agency spying on american citizens and intercepting their emails would have been anathema to americans and now it's just a part of normal business. the idea that that our government would be using drone aircraft to assassinate american citizens who have never seen the inside of a courtroom who have never been charged with a crime have not had due process which is their constitutional right would have been unthinkable and it's something now that happens every every so often every few weeks every few months and there is no public outrage i think this is a very dangerous development. senator john kerry was sworn in as the new u.s. secretary of state this week while defense chief nominee chuck hagel was ultimately grilled by the senate sees military force as a last resort and few which is attracting both admiration and criticism among american politicians but some experts believe washington that once scaled down its foreign military campaigns no matter who is in charge at the pentagon and president

obama was elected in two thousand and a we you know the same kind of hope tim isn't was there with shutting down gitmo and ending these wars and fighting the right kind of wars but then we find out when you know after the deal is done after the elections are over the nomination process is over we continue with our war footing around the world no matter what the politicians come before those cameras and tell you what the key factors are that we need to take care of it be a social safety nets or the economy or or jobs being created in this country the united states will always have money for two things you can be rest assured bankers and bullets we already see the headlines coming out of the mainstream media talking about the sequester and how this is going to get our military we will have nonstop propaganda being a bombarded on to the people that fear of reducing the budget of the military so i'm absolutely confident that whoever is secretary of defense will have a very very loose pocketbook to spend to keep spending us into having. she's not

running for twenty pm on sunday here in moscow about gary maybe about to pull the plug on the construction of a new nuclear power plant which is being financed by russia that's despite a national referendum voting in favor of the project last weekend the result though was an old due to a low turnout the country's ruling party is now expected to use its majority in parliament to stop the work on the but leave power plant due to high costs of it some experts believe it's the result of pressure from bulgaria as allies who are concerned the country could become dependent on russia a local m.p. or shut off he says the government went out of its way to discourage people from supporting the project. you have to take in to go that you're using clear nuclear power or for approximately forty years and the source of the city in the country also books that we're losing very safe and very real world will nuclear

power plants in the super bowl you're uncertain usually supporting nuclear power or just. more with. approximately twenty percent just because of the fear for the majority but created a special new special commissions in the parliament. just for that is that people look to vote to support the new purple one but even in these conditions bulgarian vote. there was plenty of fallout in france this week following comments from the country's labor minister who said his nation was totally bankrupt michelle a second later corrected himself claiming it was all just a simple joke but executive director of d.v. advisors patter young doesn't quite see the funny side. the problem is the french government is the biggest economic october in france it spans the equivalent of fifty six point five percent of all of the economic activity the only other

countries that spent more apart from sweden and the european union are places like north korea and we all know those are not the world's most prosperous nations there is absolutely no question the french need incredible radical economic reform it was not present on the sarkozy administration and frankly the feckless and incompetence of mr hall on the president has resulted in the situation we have now i massive outpouring of cash for these two three billion euros that's the equivalent of about two percent of the entire economy left the country just during october and november last year let's face it the last time the french government balance their books was in the middle of the nineteen seventies france is in an appalling prices barely half the country are paying income tax you've got a situation where in fact public opinion is not starting to realize that france is bankrupt a poll in the figure of today eighty percent of people agreed with mr suttles

comments it's no joke what mr sipe on said it's the truth. by world of day time here on our starting with a bloody terrorist attack that has killed at least thirty three and injured many more in northern iraq a suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a police headquarters and cut a cork it was followed by heavy gunfire and grenades launched by men dressed in police uniforms the assault occurred in an ethnically divided city deeply embroiled in sectarian violence between shia and kurdish and sunni factions. a roadside bomb attack in a southern province of afghanistan has killed a family of five two of the victims were small children they were traveling by car when it ran over an explosive device it's not known whether the family was targeted on purpose. still to come here on the program america's secret prisons uncovered we take a closer look at what went on behind closed doors of the so-called cia black sites

in eastern europe. with a member of the family who directly responsible of my torture she was beating me to the suited me a medical what is a claim by a cost of a targeted by the authorities just for treating those hurt in government demonstrations. sigrid laboratory tim curry was able to build a new its most sophisticated robot which fortunately doesn't give a dollar amount anything tim's mission to teach music creation why it should care about humans in the world this is why you should care only. the first baby steps are joy. folds and bones

are not a big deal. but they can cause terrible trauma. for children can be broken by touch. and only the will of life can make. i'm source a. fragile people on our team. technology innovation all the developments from around russia we. covered. could have you with us here in our role research i live in moscow medical workers in bahrain say they're being targeted by the authorities for simply treating

injured protesters doctors say the retribution has been severe or the government insists it's now investigating the allegations. looked at those at risk for trying to help not to dive was among a group of doctors who were trying to help the injured during a protest in bahrain she claims that after violently crushing the dissent. turned their attention to her and her colleagues who were providing first aid they deny. health care to the patients and protesters. the doctors did not obey the orders for such. decided to punish those doctors i was taken to a place for ten days that i didn't know where it was. all that time i was blindfolded and handcuffed i was in a solitary confinement for back to twenty one days. and they would just open the

door of the cell and beat me up at least there was a member of the royal family who directly was responsible of my torture she she was beating me and she looked at me almost two dozen doctors were arrested back then this for the fuel the anger of the protesters and turned the hospitals grounds into the scene of the rally the sound money hospital is bahrain's leading medical institution and that's where most of the arrests have been made after those events it now looks like a fortress guarded heavily by the right police and not everybody can get in human rights activists say if you had suffered for speaking out against the regime and decided to come here for treatment you could make matters even worse for yourself anyone who was injured from the protests they cannot go to the hospital because they would be interested in getting beaten and taken to the jail last year many protester and in jail where torture insults and money we have

a story and testimony of people and protester being tortured and the jail but in my country protester were tortured inside. britain not or was charged with treason and sentenced to fifteen years in prison before being acquitted because of what she believed to be international pressure on bahrain's government the fate of many other doctors remains unclear the person who allegedly tortured not and others princes. has been officially charged by police she denies all allegations against her meanwhile the guy. woman stands resumed that the action it took against the hospital was the right thing to do. these doctors managed to control the emergency unit in the first floor of the hospital and started to perform political acts when a hospital is turned into a base for political ethic work this is a real disaster we had an unbiased committee investigating the hospital eight

condemn the acts of these doctors as. the case against one of the members of the world family may seem as an indication that bahrain's government has bowed to the negative global reaction with the doctor scandal being far from the only torture accusation c.c.t.v. cameras have been installed at all prisons in a move to become more transparent according to the authorities but with protests in the gulf states still continuing and accusations of human rights violations intensifying the opposition is still wondering what happens in the places where the cameras cannot see. reporting from the kingdom of bahrain. while reportedly being held hostage by the russian mafia for eight months an irish real estate tycoon claims he was given a punishment he would never forget find out what was right into the man's forehead so on our website. also online for the russian for.